ISLAMABAD: Ostensibly succumbing to political pressure, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has seemingly all but forgotten about deciding fake degree cases against lawmakers.
An ECP official who declined to be named told Pakistan Today that only 3 out of 54 fake degree cases against lawmakers had been sent to police for first information report registration. “The ECP held 15 hearings against 54 legislators but recommended legal action against only three from the opposition parties,” said the source adding that no action was taken against Postal Services Minister Nawabzada Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri, who did not attend a single hearing despite being served final notice. Similarly, the source said, the ECP said nothing about the case of Livestock and Dairy Development Minister Mir Humayon Aziz Kurd, who had submitted a degree of a university that was not registered with the Higher Education Commission.
The HEC had declared 19 lawmakers’ degree fake but no action had been taken against them, the source said. Moreover, nine accused lawmakers had disowned their own degrees they submitted when they put in their nomination papers and the ECP had allowed them to present new degrees, he added.
An HEC official who asked not to be named said that the HEC had time and again raised the issue with ECP committee hearing fake degree cases but that effort was fruitless.
ECP representative Afzal Khan parried questions on the matter, saying that all fake degree cases’ hearings would be completed by the end of this month. The ECP bench hearing fake degree cases on Monday issued final notice for defence to two women lawmakers Nasim Nasir Khawaja and Syeda Majida.
